Monday, May 11, 2009

Fast company in the pool

I did something new and radical after dropping Linda off at work. I went to Canyon Meadows instead of FOMC, and it turned out to be perfect timing. I got into the pool to see a whole crowd of people standing around at the end. Then they all hopped out, leaving essentially an empty pool. I got the primo centre lane where I can see the pace clock. That's the only think about FOMC that I don't like. The pace clock is way off in a corner by the floatie lanes.

Warmed up and did some drill, feeling a bit clunky, but getting better. Golf 82.
Then 4 sets of 4 x 100 m intervals at pace, with declining rest times. I was aiming for 105 to 110 seconds, and mostly nailed it. There were a couple where I couldn't do the math in my head, and got confused where I was on the clock. Good thing I wasn't doing more than 4 each. I can keep track of that much, anyways.

Part way through I was joined by a girl that was swimming almost exactly the same pace as me, or just a bit faster. That was great. There was a couple times where one of us was drafting off the other. I'm beginning to see how this works. A couple times there was someone standing at the end, watching us. She'd do a fast tumble turn, splashing them a bit, and I'd do an open turn, looking at the clock and muttering last slow, now for the good stuff. They swam in another lane. Toward the end of the workout they started taking away swim lanes to make room for an aquasize class. We ended up being just next to them. There were some big waves being produced, so that end of the pool was a bit rough. I got through the swim sets ok. It was nice having someone just as fast or a bit faster in the same lane.

In the next lane was a guy cruising along a bit faster than me. I was seriously considering getting out of the pool to walk back and forth to watch his stroke. He had a really strong pull, and you could see him accelerate each time.

I finished the sets, and did some more drill, and another slow golf, and cooled down with some easy stroke, for a total of 1.25 hrs. No workout in the dive tank, it was full of a class too. Abba music playing, with an artificial thumpa thumpa bass track put onto it. Canyon Meadows hot tub is only luke warm, and shallow. Sigh.

Ran about lunch time. It took a while to find a pace my legs could settle into. It was supposed to be an easy run, but it ended up being a out a 6:15/ Km pace for just over a half hour, and I could have gone on for a while longer. Still, it seemed a bit faster than what an easy pace should be, but trying to run slower was really weird and felt funny. Did some strides along the way. It's clouding over now. I was thinking of swapping today's run for tomorrow's bike, since it's supposed to rain, but it looked like it was already raining to the west. So I figured I'll deal with tomorrow then. Who knows, with our weather it might be nice after all.

3 comments:

  1. You did well on your run -- easy isn't supposed to mean so easy you don't break a sweat. This shows you are getting fitter!! YAY Keith!! :) :) :)

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  2. I agree with Julie, you are getting fitter by the week buddy! Nice work on being consistent and rocking out solid workouts.

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  3. I hate the constant workout juggle right now. If it's nice/dry, I'm riding, I don't care how many days in a row!

    Great work on the swim. Swimming with others is so much better than solo and YES on the draft. Same as a bike...20-30% less effort when drafting.

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